Pittsburgh’s Giant Eagle Ranked Last in a 2026 Grocery Satisfaction Survey
Money is tight enough without leaving a grocery store feeling let down.
A national shopper survey this year put a Pittsburgh-based chain at the bottom, while a few others did far better.
Here’s how the ranking played out, and what it may mean for Pennsylvanians who shop at Giant Eagle.
How ACSI Scores Grocers
The ranking comes from the American Customer Satisfaction Index, or ACSI.
ACSI is a national survey.
It asks customers how they feel about the companies they use.
A University of Michigan page says ACSI tracks how well companies meet what customers expect.
For its 2026 retail study, ACSI emailed customers it picked at random. That ran from January through December 2025.
The study is based on 31,293 completed surveys. They cover retail areas that include supermarkets.
ACSI turns each company’s answers into a score from 0 to 100. That lets you compare one chain with another.
Here’s how the 2026 supermarket results lined up, from the highest score down.
Where the Chains Landed
On ACSI’s supermarket table, Giant Eagle ranks last. Trader Joe’s ranks first at 86.
Trader Joe’s rose 2% and passed Publix, which stayed at 84.
The two had tied for the top rating in 2025, according to Retail Brew.
H-E-B is third at 83, up 1%.
Sam’s Club is next at 82. Aldi, Costco and Whole Foods come in at 81.
Two chains moved more than the rest.
Wegmans fell 6% to 78.
That’s the biggest drop on the table.
Wegmans customers were less pleased with things like store layout, staff courtesy and checkout speed.
Save A Lot went the other way. It rose 4% to 78, the biggest gain.
If you shop at Save A Lot, ACSI credited a stronger loyalty program and mobile app.
It also credited remodeled and improved stores.
The Middle of the Pack
Giant Eagle trails a middle group packed into a few points.
ShopRite and Target landed at 79, each down 1%.
Meijer fell 1% to 78.
Kroger and Ahold Delhaize held at 78.
Add Wegmans and Save A Lot, and five chains share a 78. That’s the same as the supermarket average.
Scroll to the bottom of the table, and there’s Giant Eagle at 73.
Where Giant Eagle’s 73 Falls on ACSI’s Scale
The University of Michigan page on ACSI calls scores above 80 generally excellent. Giant Eagle’s 73 falls short of that.
Scores in the 70s are average. Anything lower has room for improvement.
Seven chains on the table scored above 80 in 2026.
What ACSI Says About Giant Eagle
ACSI’s January 2026 release mentions Giant Eagle in just one sentence.
That sentence reports the last-place finish and a 1% slip. The release doesn’t say why the score fell.
The slip took Giant Eagle from 74 in the 2025 results to 73.
Retail Brew reported in March 2026 that Giant Eagle was the lowest-rated chain for the second year in a row.
ACSI scores companies, not single stores.
So the chain’s 73 can’t tell you how your Giant Eagle is doing.
No grocer is perfect, and we’d hold any single score loosely.
The Bottom of the Table
Four chains sit within four points of Giant Eagle at the bottom.
Albertsons Companies scored 74, Walmart 75, Hy-Vee 76 and BJ’s Wholesale Club 77.
Hy-Vee and Albertsons Companies each lost 3% from the year before.
At the other end, Trader Joe’s is 13 points ahead of Giant Eagle.
The supermarket average fell from 79 to 78. That’s still five points above Giant Eagle.
ACSI weights that average by each company’s market share.
A year earlier, Giant Eagle’s 74 was one point under Walmart and Save A Lot.
Both scored 75.
Save A Lot has since gained three points.
Walmart has held at 75.
No chain scored lower.
Psst! How much do you know about grocery shopping and the surveys that grade it? Take our quiz and see how many you can get right.
Quiz
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Kroger's Giant Eagle Deal
Kroger, which announced plans to buy Giant Eagle, scored 78 on the same ACSI table.
That's five points higher.
On July 1, 2026, Kroger said it would buy Giant Eagle in a $1.65 billion deal.
The price is $1.25 billion in cash plus $400 million in liabilities.
According to Pittsburgh public radio station 90.5 WESA, Giant Eagle had 197 supermarkets and 11 pharmacies when Kroger announced the deal.
Kroger says the stores will keep the Giant Eagle name and banner.
Kroger's board approved the deal unanimously.
Kroger said it doesn't expect any store closures because of the deal.
The companies expect to sell a limited number of stores to win regulatory approval.
If you're waiting on other changes, Kroger projected a 2027 close, pending that approval.
The score you're reading came first. ACSI collected its 2026 answers between January and December 2025.
Kroger isn't a new name in Giant Eagle's story.
Giant Eagle's roots in Pittsburgh go back to 1918, when three families started Eagle Grocery, according to Pittsburgh TV station WPXI.
Those families sold Eagle Grocery to Kroger in 1928. Then they joined two other families in 1931 to form Giant Eagle.
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